The Pros And Cons Of East-West Relations

The Vietnam War is widely regarded as the lowest point in the history of U.S. foreign affairs. It mercilessly dragged an unwilling country on a fatal ride for twenty years, all while receiving low approval ratings and high funding. The Vietnam conflict served as an optimum environment for the virus of controversy. No one has more experience with controversy than Heinz Alfred Kissinger. He is the ultimate pragmatist, as embodying his philosophy of realpolitik, a diplomatic ideology based on utilitarianism rather than international ethical standards. When one’s political calling card downplays the role of ethics in diplomacy, that individual is bound to garner a high profile reputation. Kissinger himself has lamented the national predicament during this conflict—squeezed between the ultimate rock, his duty to keep peace, and hard place, his duty to act with the approval of the American people. This predicament was rooted in an omnipresent opposition to Communism, as was America’s role in the entire Cold War. Cold War politics were politics of fear. That fear drove competition, which bred a certain variety of leader – a logical, calculating politician with regard for nothing but his country’s success. To avoid an uncontrollable spread of Communism through the westernized world, some moral casualties were strewn about the wayside. However, the American public had no trouble rolling up their collective sleeves to back this forward-thinking activist. In more recent years, some

In a time of political chaos, numerous approaches to contending with the USSR were offered by various politicians, yet “the man who got things right from the start was, at first glance, an unlikely statesman… Through a combination of vision, tenacity, patience, and improvisational skill, he produced what Henry Kissinger terms ‘the most stunning diplomatic feat of the modern era…’ As Margaret Thatcher put it, ‘Ronald Reagan won the Cold War without firing a shot’” (D’Souza). Henry Kissinger was an “old nemesis” of Reagan, yet even he “observed that while it was Bush who presided over the final disintegration of the Soviet empire, ‘it was Ronald Reagan's Presidency which marked the turning point.’ [Additionally,] Cardinal Casaroli, the Vatican secretary of state, remarked publicly that the Reagan military buildup, which he had opposed at the time, had led to the collapse of Communism” (D’Souza). The great quantity of figures who have acknowledged the intelligence Reagan’s actions validates these actions as such. Many democratic opponents argued that “the West should ingratiate itself with the Soviet Union by pursuing ‘the stuffed-goose option—that is, providing them with all the grain and consumer goods they need.’ If Reagan had taken this advice when it was offered in 1982, the Soviet empire

Barack Obama and Joe Biden will renew America’s security and standing in the world through a new era of American leadership. The Obama-Biden foreign policy will end the war in Iraq responsibly, finish the fight against the Taliban and al Qaeda in Afghanistan, secure nuclear weapons and loose nuclear materials from terrorists, and renew American diplomacy to support strong alliances and to seek a lasting peace in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Despite the increase of defense projects and counter-Soviet initiatives, Reagan did desire for negotiation and improve relations between Washington and Kremlin (Rossinow, 224). Soon afterward, during his second term, Reagan held meetings with leader Mikhail Gorbachev, with whom he negotiated a treaty to eliminate a range of nuclear weapons. Between the two men was a forged relationship- as a partnership, as friends. Reagan, surprisingly, even suggested that both powers should do what they can to ensure that such weapons entirely removed from the world (Rossinow, 232)- although the proposal 's implementation did not work, it still did prove interestingly of Reagan 's thinking to establish disarmament, even if it never happened. Nonetheless, ending the war after so many decades of tension was a monumental triumph for the US and American policy.

January 1969, Richard Nixon entered the executive office picking up the pieces Lyndon Johnson who had left while the Vietnam War was still in effect. Many Americans had the expectation that Nixon would be the “peaceful president”, visualizing he would put an end to this war in Southeast Asian and bring back home our troops. A policy Nixon redefined was the American role in the world by suggesting to limit the U.S resources and commitments. Therefore, Nixon’s set his efforts to end the war since the withdrawal from Vietnam was not an immediate option. Also, Nixon had his radar on Moscow and China because according to George C. Herring, they felt that they must release the United States from the war in a way that would uphold United States credibility with their friends and foes alike. During Nixon’s term in office, he tries a number of different strategies in his effort to end the war, but to this day, one can see that Nixon only prolonged the war when it could have ended earlier.

The Five-Power Treaty was an agreement between the United States, Britain, and Japan to reduce the amount of war ships that the nations held, with the ratio of ships between the nations being 5:5:3. There were more details in the treaty, but this was one of the largest parts. Japan was offended by this treaty at first, due to them only being allowed to have three ships for every five that one of the other nations held, however, several compromises had been made to persuade the Japanese to agree to such a deal, including promises from Britain and the United States to not fortify their land holdings in the pacific.

Nixon used his power of executive agreements manipulatively in a strategy that he called, linkage politics; this is a term for strategically organizing the United States relationships with communist powers (Small 1999, 63). Nixon knew that he must settle the Vietnam War with honor because it was a stake in Southeast Asia. Using his theory of linkage politics he saw that the end of the Vietnam War would affect negotiations with China and Russia (Small, 1999 65). He first tried to make an executive agreement with Russia, by explaining to them his idea of “strategic parity. This was an idea that because both nations had enough weapons to completely demolishes the other, neither should start war, and peace would continue. Like Eisenhower’s attempts, Nixon was unable to make an agreement with the USSR and talks continued to be slow (PBS Nixon 2002, 2).

The cold war was a conflict of ideals that involved the united states and its allies against the Soviet Union with its satellite states. Each side pushed for there ideals of how to run a country, and tried to use its influence on other countries to push them towards communism and socialism. The cold war started in the 1940’s and ended in the 1990’s lasting through the Vietnam War and other miner conflicts. Some people believe today that we are heading towards a new cold war or are already in it. I do not believe that we are in this new cold war. I think there is not enough evidence to show that we are in this kind of situation. Even though I do not believe it others do and they think they have enough evidence to prove it.

Nixon tried to achieve peace with honour by shifting US policy with “The Nixon Doctrine”, this meant nations were now responsible for their own defence. Bragg, a renown historian,

In 1972, President Nixon engaged in the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT) with Soviet Secretary General Brezhnev in his attempt to ease tension with USSR through diplomatic détente.

The Cold War alludes to a contention among the United States and the Soviet Union; while America supported Democracy/Capitalism and the Soviet Union (USSR) bolstered Communism. This major contrast was the reason for the cause as each of the unions attempted to draw an expansive number of the other world nations towards its political systems. The Cold War occurred simultaneously American civil rights movement and anti-colonial struggle in Africa. However, the United States viewed both as threat to disturb America's endeavours to defeat communist spread. During the cold war, the political strain between America and the USSR generated much of pressure on America to suspend the civil rights movement so as to retain its super power nation image

The Cold War, which started sometime in the 1940’s, was a large quarrel between the United States and the Soviet Union. This dispute involved a lot of propaganda and threats of nuclear warfare. Despite all of the trouble though, after over forty years of fighting, the two leaders of these countries (Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev) would finally work out a solution. However, although they did reach an agreement, there were many differences between these two men.

On May 8th, 1945, Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel surrendered the German armed forces to the allies in Berlin, thus ending the war for Germany. The German people were then confronted by a situation never before experienced. All of Germany was occupied by foreign armies, their cities and infrastructure lay in ruins, and millions were homeless and starving. Following the unilateral surrender by Germany, the country was divided into four zones, governed by each of the allied powers: Britain, France, the U.S. and the Soviet Union. As diplomacy between the West and the Soviet Union began to deteriorate, each zone became more self-sufficient and independent of the others. Tensions between the West and the Soviet Union also began to rise as it became apparent that the two super powers, the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. would vie for dominance throughout the world, each seeking to spread its ideology and stop the spread of the other’s. The first real exacerbation of this conflict came when the Soviet Union blockaded the divided city of Berlin, which lay in is zone of control. The U.S.S.R. wanted to test the Western resolve to hold Berlin and maintain control. The response the U.S. chose was to keep Berlin supplied by air, through constant resupply by aircraft, a feat never before accomplished. The airlift lasted for nearly eleven months and kept the Western controlled sectors of Berlin adequately supplied, and showed the Soviet Union the U.S.’s resolve to hold out against the spread of

During the cold war John F. Kennedy and the Soviet premier met to discuss the was between the east and west but they resolved nothing and Khrushchev left thinking that Kennedy was a weak leader. The Soviets

The association between the Soviet Union and the Western powers were prompted by a complicated interplay of ideological, political and economical factors, this leading to the shifts in weary cooperation and often discontented superpower rivalry as the years went on. The Soviet Union went through different phases of relations between the Western Powers depending on their political standings at the time. There was initial hostility between the Soviet leaders and the government of the United States, when the Soviet was taken out of World War 1, along with the US being against their communist based ideologies. Despite the negotiations and aid that the US provide the Soviet Union with no diplomatic relation was created between the two until much